PC Won't boot

Bartonprince

Hi,

Having a problem with my machine.

It posts but won't load into windows. After the boot screen it goes as if the windows loading screen is about ao appear but it stays black.

1) when i try to use the last known good config option, same thing happens. completely black screen.

2) safemode.. loads of lines of text appear. Then it stops on some line after a while and doesn't go to safemode.

3) i tried going into the repair console using the XP disk. It says "select which windows session you want to load" (or something) and it only allows 1 character entry. So i type "1" which is written next to "1 C:\windows". When i press 1, the system then freezes up. I can no longer do anything. (I then tried to eject the disk, and the drive would not open. but the other drive would. so i switched them and tried again, then the other drive wouldn't open.)

4) I then tried to format as a last resort. When i go to the option "intall windows xp" i then press F8 to agree to the terms, then it says "searching for previous versions of windows XP at the bottom.. and thats it. Nothing happens. (this is when i boot from CD-ROM)

5) i have selected first boot device as hard drive etc and they all fail. I have also tried to disconnect the hard drive, at which point it says "system disk missing"

6) I've tried two different sticks of ram also. same result.

What dya think?

kmb

Did you try a different sata/ide cable?Could be something as simple as that...hopefully.

regds

Bartonprince

No i didn't try that. Do you think it's a HDD related issue?

It should be, as the ram is fine it seems, GFX card, CPU, mainboard should be fine as the PC boots. It was working yesterday, although was acting up a bit.

HomunQlus

The only thing that comes to my mind is a very seriously corrupted hard drive, worst case would be the drive itself is damaged.

What you can try is:
Download the latest Knoppix, boot it up (it's probably the best Linux Live CD), and open up "QParted". That's basically a partitioning tool, similar to PartitionMagic.

Select the drive with Windows on, and see if the computer freezes up again. If it does so, the drive is really faulty, you probably have to replace it.

If not, do a full Zero-Format with the drive. That will of course wipe out all the data on the drive, and it will rewrite all sectors to 0. This will take more time the bigger the drive is, but you can be sure there are no more faulty sectors...

There's nothing else I can think of.

Maybe someone has some other suggestions?

kmb

Could be..try the cable and let us know how you get on or do you have another hdd to try?

Are you using sata or ide drives?

regds kieran

Bartonprince

HomunQlus wrote:

The only thing that comes to my mind is a very seriously corrupted hard drive, worst case would be the drive itself is damaged.

What you can try is:
Download the latest Knoppix, boot it up (it's probably the best Linux Live CD), and open up "QParted". That's basically a partitioning tool, similar to PartitionMagic.

Select the drive with Windows on, and see if the computer freezes up again. If it does so, the drive is really faulty, you probably have to replace it.

If not, do a full Zero-Format with the drive. That will of course wipe out all the data on the drive, and it will rewrite all sectors to 0. This will take more time the bigger the drive is, but you can be sure there are no more faulty sectors...

There's nothing else I can think of.

Maybe someone has some other suggestions?

Thanks,

I went into the repair console the first time, and i was able to to run CHKDSK, and after a while it reported that there were some damaged or faulty sectors. Now i can no longer get in there.

So you think it's the HDD is shot?

I'll try that knoppix.net.

Sucks because i had just loaded on NFSUMW Black Edition and then had to bring it back as the disk was faulty, and they had no replacement copies =( hope i don't loose everything =(

Bartonprince

kmb wrote:

Could be..try the cable and let us know how you get on or do you have another hdd to try?

Are you using sata or ide drives?

regds kieran

I have a pretty old 80GB IDE drive, either a quantum Fireball or a diamondmax or something. I do remember being a little rough with it the other day when i was inebriated. It wouldn't boot then next day, but when i removed and replaced everything, it did then boot. But wasn't very stable (althought i could install and play need for speed most wanted).

kmb

why not download the maxtor software and run it and it will test the drive?

Not sure if its powermax or maxblast but the maxtor site will tell you.This will run diagnostics on it for you.

regards kieran.

also swop the cd rom and hdd cable and see if it makes a difference.

Bartonprince

Cheers. I've only got 1 HDD. So i can't download anything because i can't get into windows at home.

kmb

the software fits on a floppy!!!

and boots from floppy.Maybe you can use the computer your on now.

What part of waterford are you based?

gamer

Your windows instalation may be screwed up,i had same problem,i had to repartion drive in to 2,partitions,reformat,fdisk in fat32format,then reinstall windows from scratch, if ur drive is fat32format,,go to netcafe download win98se bootdisk,with cdrom support on.then go to bios,set boot order drive a: floppy first, then drive c:/ ,,when u boot up it loads up ramdrive, and into that loads msdos,format, then chkdsk c:/ from ms dos prompt, also .type fdisk c:/ it will show u the different partion info on drive c: ,,the chances are theres nuthing wrong with drive c:\ ,,even if theres some bad sectors windows will mark them and allow u to install winxp or win os,9.. ,ur are probly missing data from mbr or the registry or the windows dat files,which stops u even loading into safe mode,if u have backups u cud replace them,into windows directory,or c:\ root directory.chances are u cud just reinstall windows and reformat drive,if u dont format c:\ and just reinstall windows into same directory u may not need to reinstall all your applications, win98bootdisk allows u acess to cdrom,it loads universal cdrom drivers,go to bootdisk.com to download it ,get 2 copys of floppy bootdisks as disks are not very reliable.if ur are reformating format c: in fat32 format .

gamer

u can use win98 bootdisk, to reinstall windows even if all data is scrambled on drive c:,i think ur gonna have to reformat c:\, all the msdos commands format,chkdsk,etc are loaded into a virtiual ramdrive d:\ ,,and it sets up ur cdrom as drive e:\ . i am presuming ur hd c:\ is foematted in FAT32 mode, if its in ntfs, then u may have to try and get winxp boot disks from sum1 or..u cud try formatting c:\ from another pc .

Bartonprince

kmb wrote:

the software fits on a floppy!!!

and boots from floppy.Maybe you can use the computer your on now.

What part of waterford are you based?

Ok i'll try get it on a floppy. I'm based in ardkeen near tesco

Bartonprince

gamer wrote:

Your windows instalation may be screwed up,i had same problem,i had to repartion drive in to 2,partitions,reformat,fdisk in fat32format,then reinstall windows from scratch, if ur drive is fat32format,,go to netcafe download win98se bootdisk,with cdrom support on.then go to bios,set boot order drive a: floppy first, then drive c:/ ,,when u boot up it loads up ramdrive, and into that loads msdos,format, then chkdsk c:/ from ms dos prompt, also .type fdisk c:/ it will show u the different partion info on drive c: ,,the chances are theres nuthing wrong with drive c:\ ,,even if theres some bad sectors windows will mark them and allow u to install winxp or win os,9.. ,ur are probly missing data from mbr or the registry or the windows dat files,which stops u even loading into safe mode,if u have backups u cud replace them,into windows directory,or c:\ root directory.chances are u cud just reinstall windows and reformat drive,if u dont format c:\ and just reinstall windows into same directory u may not need to reinstall all your applications, win98bootdisk allows u acess to cdrom,it loads universal cdrom drivers,go to bootdisk.com to download it ,get 2 copys of floppy bootdisks as disks are not very reliable.if ur are reformating format c: in fat32 format .

Yes i use NTFS file system. It looks like bad sectors. Because the PC crashes no matter what i do. So you're saying i need a bootable floppy? should i go XP or win98 then?

gamer

if u cud get access to c:\ dos prompt,,u cud try Scanreg /restore command to restore your win os registry sounds like its corrupted,or missing. LOOK IN windows\sysbckup directory for copys of ur registry, u can run Scanreg /fix or Scanreg /restore commands.run chkdsk first on drive c: ,u need capital S in scanreg commands.i think theres about 5percent chance that the hd is faulty, even if theres bad sectors windows can get round that and mark them,before installation.or try scanreg.exe /fix or /restore.

Bartonprince

gamer wrote:

if u cud get access to c:\ dos prompt,,u cud try Scanreg /restore command to restore your win os registry sounds like its corrupted,or missing. LOOK IN windows\sysbckup directory for copys of ur registry, u can run Scanreg /fix or Scanreg /restore commands.run chkdsk first on drive c: ,u need capital S in scanreg commands.i think theres about 5percent chance that the hd is faulty, even if theres bad sectors windows can get round that and mark them,before installation.or try scanreg.exe /fix or /restore.

Ok, so once i can get a bootable floppy, i'll be able to dos prompt and try the /fix or /restore? Because i can't get into dos prompt any other way

kmb

What i did before was save all on another pc which was needed.

Then low level format on the hard disk,This solves a lot of problems and it will say wheather the disc is screwed or not.

This will take a couple of hours but is well worth it as it rescues a lot of "bad sectors" hard drives.

Ardkeen is very far from lismore where i will be overweekend.Just thought maybe you where in the locality.

regds kieran

gamer

see upgrade help link above in this forum, i posted there advice as to how u boot ur pc in dos mode and to see drive c:\ your hardrive as its in ntfs mode ,that means it will be invisible even if u boot from a standard win98bootdisk, u need to download a special ntfs bootdisk to solve this problem, go to www.bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm and follow the link to datapol.de to download a ntfs bootdisk to allow u to examine drive c: in dos prompt mode.

gamer

u can also download readnts.exe from bootdisk.com/ntfs section ,,this can be used after booting up from win98se bootdisk.in order to see drive c:/ as its in ntfs format.so u,ll need at least 2 floppys.

gamer

u,ll need a boot floppy or cdrom with an ntfs utility to boot into dos prompt ,,to do anything or restore .scanreg,or just to look at drive c: since u say its in ntfs format.

gamer

If ur experienced at building pcs u cud go to friend ,put hd in his pc,jumper c:/ set it as a slave drive,set up as drive d, try Scanreg/restore d:/ or fix. when opening anypc switch off, take antistatic precautions ,take out power plug from, pc power unit,and from esb socket, only for the experienced, u dont wanna blow up your friends pc,or fry his motherboard.say u have maxtor hd,download maxtor drive test utility onto floppy.if system.dat or user.dat is damaged ur pc wont boot up.if u can fix em or find older copys on ur hd u cud maybe fix the winos to bootup again.

Bartonprince

gamer wrote:

If ur experienced at building pcs u cud go to friend ,put hd in his pc,jumper c:/ set it as a slave drive,set up as drive d, try Scanreg/restore d:/ or fix. when opening anypc switch off, take antistatic precautions ,take out power plug from, pc power unit,and from esb socket, only for the experienced, u dont wanna blow up your friends pc,or fry his motherboard.say u have maxtor hd,download maxtor drive test utility onto floppy.if system.dat or user.dat is damaged ur pc wont boot up.if u can fix em or find older copys on ur hd u cud maybe fix the winos to bootup again.

Ok i got that ntfs boot disk. what good does that do? i did chkdsk thing and that said i had so much space used and so much free etc, and none of it was stored in bad sectors. So now what?

I went into the dos prompt and started typing stuff.

dir /s format.com -- it found that, but when i try to format it says i have to be in windows.

dir /s fdisk.exe or fdisk. It can't find fdisk at all.

tried doing Format C: from dos prompt, failed, tried Scanreg /fix and restore, they all say unknown command.

kmb

Hi,Did you reverse the cables?Did you back up your info that you need or are just gonna reformat and loose everything?

Maxtor software will do all you need.can you download this to 2 floppies i think it takes?

If you give me your maxtor part no.i will get the link for you.Dos commands are okay when you know what your doing but if not they can be a nightmare.Did you try restting the cmos in case theres something simple wrong?

make sure the source has the format file on it.For example if using a bootdisk it must be listed.A:\FORMAT(press space) C: Ithink it is.
Or if using a windows 98 cd it will also have it if you set it to cd rom first.Press second option.

But maxtor the easiest way by far for a novice as its self explanatory.



regds kieran

HomunQlus

Here's another thing you can try. It's called Ultimate Boot CD, and can check your drive for faults.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Bartonprince

kmb wrote:

Hi,Did you reverse the cables?Did you back up your info that you need or are just gonna reformat and loose everything?

Maxtor software will do all you need.can you download this to 2 floppies i think it takes?

If you give me your maxtor part no.i will get the link for you.Dos commands are okay when you know what your doing but if not they can be a nightmare.Did you try restting the cmos in case theres something simple wrong?

make sure the source has the format file on it.For example if using a bootdisk it must be listed.A:\FORMAT(press space) C: Ithink it is.
Or if using a windows 98 cd it will also have it if you set it to cd rom first.Press second option.

But maxtor the easiest way by far for a novice as its self explanatory.



regds kieran

I have an IBM Deskstar hard drive. Checked last night.

i tried A:\FORMAT C: That failed. Bad command or filename.
I just want to format the dam hard drive!

kmb

http://www.hgst.com/portal/site/en/?epi_menuItemID=4e6284c20a3050a7760062f6aac4f0a0&epi_menuID=9d9c342d03880f8056fb11f0aac4f0a0&epi_baseMenuID=3d0cb215112b6934ab937c27aac4f0a0


Above should sort you out and who knows may it is under warranty as i know i used to get 5 years sometimes when buying these trade.


regds kieran

NOTE IBM DESKSTAR NOW OWNED BY HITACHI!!!

HomunQlus

Bartonprince wrote:

I have an IBM Deskstar hard drive. Checked last night.

i tried A:\FORMAT C: That failed. Bad command or filename.
I just want to format the dam hard drive!

Then boot up Knoppix, open up a Terminal.

do the follwing:

$> su
[COLOR="DarkGreen"](you are now root)[/COLOR]
$> mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hda1

(change the number of hda1 to what number the drive you want to format actually is, in most cases it is hda1)

This will create a Linux file system on the drive, making sure all the data is wiped out.

Then you boot up with your Windows CD, and when it comes to the point where you can select your hard drive, select the one you just formatted with a Linux file system, tell Windows to format the drive with NTFS.

gamer

I think u need to get the win98 boot disk ,boot up that which loads a virtual ramdrive into memory,then loads up dos evironment, with fdisk format commands, with cdrom acess as drive e. cd d:\ for dos commands maybe,then use readnts.exe to allow u to acess ur ntfs hardisk c:\ ,,it would be simpler to download and burn a win xp repair and maintenace boot cdrom,on a cdr,which gives u dos prompt commands and works on fat32 or ntfs on any hard disk, if u wanna format u go cd c:\
then format c: or format c:\ . are dir and cd c:\ comands working?.u cud cd c:\ try scandisk command ,it cleans up ur hardisk. u cud go cd a:\ ,then copy *.* c:\ or c: ,then reboot pc see if dos win98 boots up.u r going to need at least to boot disks or 1 bootable cdrom,,if u download the ultimate boot disk from utimatebootcd.com then burn an iso image to a cdr,read instructions carefully,,or download the winxp bootable cdrom from bootdisk.com.ultimatebootcd doesnt contain fdisk ,but it has ranish partition prog which does the same thing. u need to know how to download winxpboot cd and burn iso to a bootable cdr disk . u will have to go on net and have a cdr writing prog on the net pc, which can burn iso images to a cdr ,read the winxpbootcd readme for instructions before u even download the prog, u cud ask net shop assistant for help if u never burned an iso to a cdr,or maybe go to a friend who has broadband and a pc with a cdwriter drive,dont forget to get a cdr blank.try dir c:\ to check is hd working atall.u can get winxp boot floppys takes 6disks if u have a friend who has an xp pc nearby.i am doubltful if a win98 disk will work cos ur hd is ntfs format.u cant just copy an iso image to a cdr ,isos,must be associated to make a bootable cdrom/cdr.

peepsbates

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-42215

try here but it sounds like ure hd could be buggered

gamer

U,ll need at least 2 boot floppys or else a bootable cdr from bootdisk.com, winxp bootable cd download and burn iso,s to a cdr,,or else universal boot disk ,to format that drive, to format cd c:\ ,then format c:\ .or else 6 winxp boot floppys,,or else set it up as a slave in sum1s pc ,drive d: or e: and format c: .go back to netshop with 3floppys and 2cdr blanks.i see no point in downloading firmware, i,m building pcs 15years, it sounds like the win dat files ,registry is corrupted or damaged,the hd should work fine once its reformatted,and repartitioned,u cud try getting winxp restore floppys off a friend.on that hd theres probly backup copys of dat files, try booting from windows cd,type R to get recovery console,type bootcfg,try the repair install.TYPE c: then cd \windows then xcopy /h system.da0 system.dat then xcopy /h user.da0 user.dat .do google search restoring winxp registry for more detailed info. all commands above are case sensitive in dos prompt mode.the chances of hd braking down is small,is hd activity light coming on,when acessing drive. after restoring registry ,reboot,and try going into xp safe mode f8,hold down, or see does winxp load.

gamer

try typing help from dos prompt ,it may give u list of commands avaidable.c:\ then cd /windows then ,dir, to look for dat or dao files.

gamer

go to support.microsoft.com ,type in search box,how to recover from a corrupted registry
,it shows u how to restore registry from backup files on drive c:\ ,win os makes automatic backups of registry and essential startup files.or try microsoft.com support.

gamer

if u wanna format, type c:\ then format c:\ or c:, small letters.or cd c:\ first to get onto drive c. cd means change directory.or cd a:\ then format c:\